NRIs seek compensation for rupee appreciation

DUBAI: Indian expatriates in UAE have demanded a compensation package from the Indian government as appreciation of the Indian rupee had impacted their remittances back home.

The demand follows a study conducted recently by the Centre for Socio-economic and Environmental Studies, Kochi, which had focused on the impact of rupee appreciation on the economy of Kerala, which is a major contributor to the number of Indians working in the gulf.

K B Murali, president of the Kerala Social Centre, Abu Dhabi, said the findings of the study should serve as an eye-opener for the Indian government to the need for adequately compensating the losses suffered by the expatriates because of the appreciation of rupee.

"It was the remittances from Indian expatriates which had saved the country from the foreign exchange crisis towards the end of 1980s and early 1990s," Murali was quoted as saying in Khaleej Times.

"So the Government of India should own up its responsibility to support the expatriates when they are facing such a crisis for no fault of theirs," he added.

R V Muhammedkutty, President of the Abu Dhabi unit of Overseas Indian Cultural Congress (OICC), also said that rupee appreciation had caused an adverse impact on the expatriates in the Gulf.

"The inflation in this region has also led to drastic decline in their savings which could be remitted to their dependents back home," he said.